New Extension to Beloyarskaya Nuclear Power Plant to Be Started Only in 2015

Sverdlovsk Region Government approved of the declaration of intent regarding the construction of a new generating unit in Beloyarskaya nuclear power plant. First Vice Premier Vladimir Vlasov pointed out this decision was expected to make a crucial contribution to the region’s stable socioeconomic development, the spokesperson for the Governor reports.

The region’s acting Energy & Communal Housing Services Minister Nikolai Smirnov said the construction of a new power unit would also secure Russia’s technological leadership in the field of closed nuclear fuel cycle development.

‘The prospective facility will make it possible to produce 9bn kW per hour worth of cheap electric power a year in Sverdlovsk Region while sparing the region from the pollution resulting from the fossil fuel combustion discharge, including millions of tons of carbon dioxide. This will reduce the region’s current (nearly 100%) dependence on the import of fossil fuel, including the coal from Ekibastuz which has to travel a long way,’ the message states.

The design of the reactor’s technical project is expected to be completed by 2013, and the manufacturing of the machinery will begin in 2014. The construction as such will only start in 2015.